Customer Reviews

Murder With Puffins (A Meg Langslow Mystery)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

All Meg wanted was a quiet weekend alone with her boyfriend Michael. She thought she'd hit the perfect solution when she remembered the family cabin on the island of Monhegan. When they arrive, however, they find that the island is in the path of hurricane Gladys. Furthermore, her family has also decided get away for a few days. Trapped in the small cabin with her family on an island full of stranded birdwatchers, Meg and Michael try to make the best of it.

Then a local celebrity is found murdered near his house. His list of enemies includes most of the island, but Meg's dad is the chief suspect. Now, Meg is searching the rain soaked island for clues, hoping she can clear her dad before the real killer leaves when the ferry resumes after the storm.

While I enjoyed the first book in this series, I loved this one. The plot is more focused here. It starts out slowly, but once the body is found, things quickly get moving. There are several great plot twists, and the story reaches a satisfying conclusion. Yet, the book is still filled with the humor that made the first fun to read. And the characters are alive and interesting as well.

Anyone looking for a fun, light-hearted mystery need look no further then this series. I'm already planning my next visit with Meg and her family and hope to enjoy many more to come.

Donna Andrew's second book was good but certainly did not measure up to her first book, Murder with Peacocks. Missing was the wacky craziness that had you laughing out loud and turning the pages as quick as you could to find out the ending. Murder with Puffins carried you along, but there seemed to be a lot lacking from the first. You read and felt like you didn't get as involved with the characters as you did in the first book. I was able to pick this one up and put it down a number of times with no problem, where with the first one I sat and read it from cover to cover without putting it down at all. After having such a wonderful hit her first time, I know it must be hard to measure up to that the second time. Don't get me wrong, Murder with Puffins was still a good mystery, just not as good as Murder with Peacocks. If you haven't read either of the author's books, I would suggest reading Puffins first and then read Peacocks which in my opinion was a 5 rating.

Meg, the delightful heroine of Andrews' first mystery, MURDER WITH PEACOCKS, is back with another charming, often hilarious mystery. Instead of the south, the book is set on a New England island, in the middle of a hurricane. Meg and Mike escaped there for some quiet time. Ha! Not with Meg's parents, relatives, and assorted loony inhabitants of the island (not to mention the puffins) around. Meg and her long suffering boyfriend are drawn into a delightful mystery concerning the murder of the dastardly island painter. The mystery is engrossing, the characters likeable, and Andrews' writing is first rate. What more could you want in a book? Great reading!

Meg and Michael have a healthy romantic relationship, but struggle to find some private intimate time together. She lives with her parents and he rents a room in a professor's house. Even when they go dining in a restaurant they have no privacy as everyone seems to recognize Meg as the person who recently solved a big profile murder case. Though fame may last for fifteen minutes, Michael shakes his head in disbelief when other diners constantly bombard Meg for autographs or ask her prurient questions. Seeking some quality time by themselves, Meg and Michael go Aunt Phoebe's cabin on Monehegan Island off of the Maine coast.

When they arrive, they find the abode filled with other people including Phoebe, Meg's immediate family, and an old family friend. A nasty storm traps everyone on the island. To get away, the couple takes long walks together. On one of their treks, they come across the murdered corpse of famous artist, local resident Victor Resnick. Circumstantial evidence points towards Meg's father or aunt as being the most likely perpetrators to have killed the villainous Mr. Resnick. The intrepid Meg and her valiant beau plan to prove otherwise.

Donna Andrews first novel, MURDER WITH PEACOCKS, won the 1997 St. Martin's Malice Domestic Award. Her second book, MURDER WITH PUFFINS, proves that Ms. Andrews was no rookie flash, but a talented author with the potential of becoming a superstar. Her likable characters are offbeat and endearing and enhance the fast-paced, entertaining story line. Fans of regional amateur sleuth tales will gain much pleasure from this wonderful novel.

Harriet Klausner

In general, I am not a fan of the 'cozy' mystery story. No offense intended, but my taste runs to dark fiction, horror, and other equally bleak genre. However, every once in a while, an uncontrollable fit comes over me, and only the lighter side of the mystery world will do. The 'cozy' is my way of escaping my normal fare without turning my back on murder and mayhem. No doubt a form of having my cake and eating it too. In pursuit of these sudden urges, I recently discovered Donna Andrew's stories about Meg Langslow and her romantic partner Michael Waterston, and have been keeping 'Murder with Puffins' on hand for just such an emergency.

Meg and Michael are also trying to escape, in their case they are trying to get away from their charming but eccentric families and friends. Meg takes advantage of a standing offer and heads off with Michael to Monhegan, a semi-civilized island off the coast of Maine. What they did not count on was finding that the entire Langslow clan has independently arrived at the same idea. Upon arriving on the island, Meg discovers that she has fled the frying pan for the fire.

True to form, in the middle of a chaos concocted of a mass of birdwatchers, an equal number of Langslows, and a hurricane, the most unpopular person on the island dies in mysterious (and inconvenient) circumstances. Since one of the possible suspects is Meg's father, our two intrepid vacationers thrust themselves hip deep in an investigation that leads them to every quirk and secret Monhegan contains. Nor does it help that the weather has made communication with the outside world impossible.

One of Andrew's admirable traits it that all her characters seem to have some level of native intelligence. They may be weird, suspicious or inexplicable, but they generally can indulge in repartee and make the occasional quip. Even the lesser lights are not completely dim. Thus, her stories are comedies of manners, not simple burlesques. Her plots move along lightly, and she manages to avoid the sins of over-writing. All of which creates a very pleasant entertainment, and explains why the author has enjoyed immediate acceptance and received several notable awards.

Whether you are addicted to this genre, or are, like me, an occasional visitor, you will find this series excellent reading. While 'Murder with Puffins' will not suffer from being read out of order (it is the second in the series), I still think it best to start at the beginning with 'Murder with Peacocks.' Take my advice and read them all.

Donna Andrews does it again! I enjoyed Murder with Puffins even more than I enjoyed Peacocks. The humor alone made this book an absolute delightful read. I laughed through the entire book. The characters seemed to jump off of the pages. The "birders" in the story were hilarious. Miss Andrew's descriptions of characters and events take on a life of their own. I become so caught up with the characters, that I forget about the mystery at the beginning of the story. When the mystery falls into place, the story takes another fun avenue. This mystery takes a lot of turns and twists. I enjoyed trying to figure out who "did it". I can't wait for the next book!

In Murder with Puffins, Donna Andrews moves Meg Langslow, her new sweetheart Micheal, and the most interesting of the cast of characters from Murder with Peacocks to an island off the coast of Maine - thereby showing us that her comic flair flourishes on Maine's rocky coast as well as the southern sun of her first book. I thoroughly enjoyed this second book, which maintains the charm and zany plotting of her first book while developing her cast of characters. I'm already longing for the next in the series. I can't wait to see where she takes Meg and company next.

I waited eagerly for Donna Andrews second novel. After all,anyone who wrote Murder with Peacocks would surely come up with anequally interesting second venture. Not so. While the writing style of Murder with Puffins is good, the plot falls somewhat flat. Perhaps I overdosed on the family, and don't find their antics so cute any more. Or perhaps I want our heroine to show a little backbone and get a life of her own, instead of running about doing everyone's biding. A fair novel, but for the next one, I'll wait for the paperback.

Meg and new boyfriend Michael are trying to have a romantic getaway in the 2nd book of this series. What goes wrong? Well, first they get seasick, end up in the middle of a hurricane, get stranded on their island destination with Meg's family, and then stumble upon a corpse. In true Meg fashion, everything that can go wrong does go wrong.

This book was funny and contained a large list of zany characters. Like the first book in the series, there are many, many suspects and Meg's dad appears to be the lead suspect. Also like the first book, I felt that there was too much information and too many suspects to sift through them all. I liked the comedy, but I hope in future books Meg's dad is featured more as a help to solving the case rather than a suspect.

This book (and series) are great for a vacation read or a long day at the beach.

The first book in the series is "Murder with Peacocks". Enjoy!

The second entry in this series was enjoyable and probably deserves more than 3 stars, but in comparison to the first one, something is missing. I eagerly awaited this title and was thrilled to receive it before it was in the bookstores. But, what was hilarious in the first outing becomes just a little bit 'tired' and contrived in this book. Without giving away any of the story, the main characters, Meg and Michael seem to be 'stuck' in their relationship, and the secondary characters have lost some of their appeal--possibly this comes from moving everyone to another location, maybe just from over exposure. The plot is well thought out with a couple of unexpected twists--and holds together with no unexpected villains coming in from the wings at the last minute. My recommendation? If you only have time to read one of Ms. Andrews' books, read 'Murder with Peacocks'--and take your phone off the hook, send your kids outside and just enjoy!